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The Millennium Dome London

My only memory of it is the amount of signs on the Underground for it and the fact that for some reason Camelot (the lottery people, not the Chorley theme park) were involved in ticketing, meaning that from some point in 1999 alongside the normal lottery play slips there were also slips allowing you to pick a date to visit the Dome.

I suppose that was thought to be a good way sell tickets in an era before ecommerce was really a thing and many more people than now didn't even have debit cards...
 
When I went for my teacher training interview, the first verbal question was..."Spell millennium"
Amazingly, I got it right!
 
I don't think it was a North or South thing as many of you say. Possibly with school trips (even then I don't think mine did). Living in Sussex I knew only of one person who went.

I did manage to get on the London eye in the first months of operation (it was delayed and did not open until march I think).

I think many people north and south had seen it as a huge waste of money. The first time I had seen the building (I think on a school trip to see Jesus Christ superstar at the theater (history I thin ;-s)).
The coach was buzzing with excitement at seeing the white and yellow blob on our approach to the blackwall tunnel. But that was it.
 
I visited the exhibition as a 13 year old. It was interesting, but it honestly felt like it didn't know what it was trying to be - part science museum, part trade fair, part circus. I remember the show was about some flying prince or something called Sky Boy and I do like aerial gymnastics, so I enjoyed that - though it probably wasn't a patch on Cirque du Soleil. I remember the strange body sculpture and there was some huge blue diamond on display as well. There was also a 3D Blackadder time-travelling show which probably became Blackadder Back and Forth, it's all a bit hazy now though. I remember it being a fun day but that might just be because it was a treat to go to London and my two best friends came with me, one of whom lived in Wales. Didn't feel like a once-in-a-lifetime historical experience really.
 
It had lots going for it, also lots against it, the centre was used for aerial performances from the middle/ceiling of the dome, with a cast of 160 people https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Show_at_the_Dome_-_geograph.org.uk_-_7512.jpg

the human body has been mentioned you would travel up through the body on Escalators,


The cinema showing black adder some have mentioned was in a separate building just outside the dome.

i remember a reasonable amount from the dome but the operating costs with staff etc were way too high to be viable, the cast of the show gives you an idea of the over top scale of the attraction.
 
Went as a kid and remember finding it pretty dull. The walk through body was cool but other than that it was mostly forgettable.
 
I always thought the big issues was that it was only for a year, but there was a lot of exhibition infrastructure that would have lasted longer (it didn't appear to be built as a temporary exhibition) so maybe could have been open for a few more years to recover costs. Basically either make it a proper exhibition for 2-3 years or make it disposible.
Also it really didn't feel like it knew what it was, is it a science museum or a review of human history or an exhibition of comtemporary arts? I think it really should have stuck to celebrating human acheivement over the last milenium rather than the more science musieum type stuff.
 
SuperMuscleMan said:
I did manage to get on the London eye in the first months of operation (it was delayed and did not open until march I think).
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It's funny, isn't it? Before they opened both the dome and the eye were ridiculed as wasting taxpayer money and being blights on the landscape, with public opinion strongly against them. One of them worked out well, is still loved, and will have paid for itself many many ties over, one of them not so much.
 
pluk said:
It's funny, isn't it? Before they opened both the dome and the eye were ridiculed as wasting taxpayer money and being blights on the landscape, with public opinion strongly against them. One of them worked out well, is still loved, and will have paid for itself many many ties over, one of them not so much.
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I think the Dome has worked out well in the end as a venue for major events - big-name gigs, London Olympics, international tennis etc. That's made it a viable commercial enterprise, even if it's not what it was originally intended as.
 
pluk said:
It's funny, isn't it? Before they opened both the dome and the eye were ridiculed as wasting taxpayer money and being blights on the landscape, with public opinion strongly against them. One of them worked out well, is still loved, and will have paid for itself many many ties over, one of them not so much.
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Don't forget the dodgy wobbly bridge too.
 
NuttySquirrel said:
I think the Dome has worked out well in the end as a venue for major events - big-name gigs, London Olympics, international tennis etc. That's made it a viable commercial enterprise, even if it's not what it was originally intended as.
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They are only a viable commercial enterprise now because the dome was redeveloped at massive expense previously.
The real viable commercial response would have been to rip it down and use the land for development...but vanity prevailed.
It was rumoured to cost a million quid a month in upkeep for the years spent working out what to do with it.
 
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Why is it they never designed the Dome as a temporary structure that could be dismantled easily after the year 2000 was over, out of interest? The ETP documentary said that they originally considered a temporary structure, but they changed it to a permanent structure by altering the roof material.

I should think a temporary structure would also have reduced the initial outlay, as well. So even if the Dome hadn’t been a success, the loss would have been minimised. So in that regard, I am surprised that they didn’t make the Dome a temporary structure considering they knew they only wanted the celebration to be one year long.

That would have been one key advantage of picking the NEC in Birmingham (the other main contender) to house this exhibition; the NEC would still have had other stuff going on in there even after the millennium celebration was over, so the debate about what to do with the space afterwards wouldn’t have been an issue. The NEC also would have been more central within the UK, and it wouldn’t have necessitated the same huge redevelopment costs as the Greenwich site (the Greenwich site was a derelict brownfield site that needed decontaminating after being one of the largest gas plants in the UK, owned by British Gas). And I’d also imagine that the NEC would be more reachable by car than the centre of London, so it might have had more of a pull outside of city tourists.

I can see why the government picked Greenwich, but when I write it like that, it does make me wonder why the NEC wasn’t the chosen site in the first place… the government must have had a compelling reason why Greenwich was preferable over the NEC, though, so I don’t really know why I’m discussing this.

In fairness, though, I guess the government did want the millennium celebration to “leave a legacy”, and a temporary structure or a celebration situated in the NEC may not have done that as effectively as a permanent structure in Greenwich in the government’s eyes, so I guess that may have been their reasoning behind going for a permanent structure.
 
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It was a decade of fudge and bodge Matt, the government changed mid plan, goalpoasts shifted, from right to left, and different egos needed to be massaged.
There simply never was a clear plan, just a bright idea, and that showed in the finished "jack of all trades" bodged up mixture inside and around the dome.
Very nearly went on my own, on a cheap day return train package, because I could not find a single soul I knew to go with me.
In the end, the detailed reviews made me realise there was nothing in it that really stood out for me...no signature coaster, as it were.
 
NuttySquirrel said:
I think the Dome has worked out well in the end as a venue for major events - big-name gigs, London Olympics, international tennis etc. That's made it a viable commercial enterprise, even if it's not what it was originally intended as.
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It cost about £800 million.
It sold for £1. Not 1 million, 1 actual pound.

OK, they also pay 15% of profits to the government, but that's still a tiny fraction of what it cost. Its a succesful venue in itself, but it certainly didn't work out well for pretty much any of its intended aims or financially. It wouldn't be a viable commercial enterprise if the true costs of its existence were borne by the operator.
 
pluk said:
It cost about £800 million.
It sold for £1. Not 1 million, 1 actual pound.

OK, they also pay 15% of profits to the government, but that's still a tiny fraction of what it cost. Its a succesful venue in itself, but it certainly didn't work out well for pretty much any of its intended aims or financially. It wouldn't be a viable commercial enterprise if the true costs of its existence were borne by the operator.
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Same as usual, nationalise the costs, privatise the profits.
 
Rob F said:
I also don't think it was meant to only last a year ….. failure lead to it closing
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I'm pretty sure they made a big deal in marketing about it being a one-year thing.

Pretty daft really.

I seem to recall a Winter Wonderland event happening in the dome in a couple of the years between 2000 and work on The O2 began. Not sure if it is related to the event of the same name in Hyde Park.
 
Always felt the Millennium Dome was the best chance of a major indoor theme park we will likely ever get in the UK. Perfect size for a decent sized indoor park and obviously prime location with it being in London and next to the river.

Where were the London Resort people when we needed them eh?
 
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